McLaren should thank Sergio Perez for playing a part in their first Constructors’ title since 1998, Jan Lammers saying the Red Bull driver “did not function” as a second driver.

Although Max Verstappen won the Drivers’ Championship title for Red Bull, Perez’s ongoing woes meant they weren’t able to hold off McLaren in the fight for the Constructors’ title.

McLaren can ‘thank’ Sergio Perez for his assistance

The Woking team edged ahead at the Azerbaijan Grand Prix when Oscar Piastri joined his team-mate Lando Norris on two wins apiece at the point of the season, the Aussie twice doing what Perez could not – win a race.

McLaren’s two-car attack in the races meant once they were ahead in the standings, they put distance between themselves and Red Bull despite Verstappen still scoring big points, including two late-season wins, to keep his team within sniffing distance.

But as the McLarens piled on the podiums while Perez barely scored a point, it was the Woking team who emerged victorious in the Constructors’ Championship with Red Bull also falling behind Ferrari to third.

Former F1 driver Lammers says while McLaren clearly deserved the teams’ title with their two drivers, Perez made it easier for them.

“I definitely think McLaren is the deserved champion this year,” Lammers told NOS. “But I also think they can thank Sergio Perez for this. He simply did not function nearly as well as the second driver at McLaren.”

Perez’s inability this year to help Red Bull secure the double could yet cost him his Red Bull with the team set to announce their F1 2025 line-ups later this week. And Perez, it’s being claimed, could be out with Liam Lawson promoted alongside Verstappen.

F1 2024: The final scores

👉The final F1 2024 Drivers’ and Constructors’ standings

👉F1 2024: Head-to-head race statistics between team-mates

McLaren’s ‘weak point’ identified

But while McLaren wrapped up the Constructors’ Championship, they fell short in the Drivers’ with Norris 63 points behind Verstappen.

After a slow start to the campaign with McLaren only really firing after their Miami Grand Prix upgrades, Norris and McLaren’s confidence grew along with their points tally.

However, his title quest was over bar the shouting when a red flag at a rain-swept Brazilian Grand Prix cost him the lead, the Briton not helped by his own mistakes after the restart.

Lammers is impressed that Norris acknowledges that he still has a few things to work on if he wants to take Verstappen to the line next year.

“Next season, everyone will start with a clean slate,” Lammers said. “Norris says about himself that he has everything it takes to win the title.

“He has already shown some great things this year, of course, but there were also moments when he himself said: ‘I still have to learn a thing or two’. That is all quite good of him.”

His fellow pundit, former Bridgestone engineer Ernest Knoors says it’s not only Norris who has lessons to learn from 2024.

“McLaren really laid a very good foundation this season,” said the Dutchman. “I think they paid the price this season because they hadn’t really fought for the championship for a long time. Their weak point was constantly getting the most out of that car, because since Miami they were actually very fast.

“Yet they constantly made mistakes, for example by reacting too late to a safety car, or by not interpreting the rules completely correctly.

“Lando learned from that. He will also have learned how to fight with Verstappen, because he also has to be harder and more decisive in that,” Knoors explains about the British driver, who eventually finished second in the Drivers’ Championship.

“The team needs to be sharper in how they apply certain strategies and how they deal with unpredictable circumstances. That is something you learn from your mistakes. I assume that they have made a huge step in that this year, so I expect that they will be well prepared next year.”

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